Yorkshire will have to defend their decision to sack former coach Andrew Gale and five other members of staff after an employment tribunal found their claim for wrongful dismissal to be ‘well founded.’
And they will do so on the basis that the sackings were ‘necessary and justified’ when the two sides enter negotiations over any settlement. Gale brought his claim along with second team coach Ian Dews, bowling coach Richard Pyrah, academy lead Richard Damms and strength and conditioning coaches Ian Fisher and Peter Sim.
Yorkshire have already come to an agreement with several of the 16 people who were axed after signing a letter accusing Azeem Rafiq of being on a ‘one man mission to bring down the club.’ However they will continue to contest this claim with an ECB cricket disciplinary commission investigation still to reveal its findings.
The judgement was issued by the judge on May 23 but published on Tuesday. In a statement Yorkshire said: "The club acknowledges the judgement that no disciplinary process was followed, which it has accepted in order to minimise the tribunal time taken up by these cases.
"At this preliminary stage, the tribunal has not made any judgement on the reasons for dismissal and the club's firm view is that the dismissals were necessary and justified."
Former batter Gale, 38, spent his entire career at Yorkshire, first as a player after making his debut in 2004, then as captain between 2009 and 2016. He then ended his playing career at the age of 32 to take up the head coach role.
He was initially suspended by the club as part of an investigation into an historic anti-semitic tweet he sent in 2010 - before being sacked on December 3. Gale also lost his job with Headingley-based The Hundred side Northern Superchargers when his contract was not renewed.
In a now deleted post on Twitter back when Gale was Yorkshire's captain, he is said to have called Paul Dews, the former head of media at Leeds United and current head of communications at Middlesbrough, a "y**".
Gale told the Jewish News that he was "completely unaware" of the offensive nature of the term at the time he sent the message, and insisted that he would not have used it had he "been aware of its offensive meaning". The message was deleted soon after it was posted.
It ended his 20-year association with the county, having made his debut as a player in 2001. He played 156 first-class matches for the club, scoring more than 8,000 runs.
Gale and other members of staff were dismissed following the fallout from the Azeem Rafiq scandal. The former Yorkshire player told a DCMS select committee that English cricket was "institutionally" racist. He also said he was driven to the brink of suicide during his time at Headingley.
Yorkshire held their own investigation into Rafiq's claims and concluded the former all-rounder was the "victim of racial harassment and bullying", with seven of the 43 allegations upheld. However, they also said no-one at the club would be disciplined, which drew widespread condemnation.
The subsequent fallout led to the resignations of chief executive Mark Arthur and chairman Roger Hutton, and Headingley was temporarily banned from hosting international matches. However, that order has since been revoked.
Lord Patel has taken over as chairman, former Yorkshire and England pace bowler Darren Gough has come in as director of cricket and former West Indies all-rounder Ottis Gibson was appointed head coach in January. Last month, Patel admitted that a "very small minority of club members still believe "nothing was wrong" despite the racism scandal.
